Filed by Jon Nyatawa at 4:57 p.m.

How has Zac Lee dealt with the benching, the negative criticism and the offense's struggles? Well, it helps to have a dad who's truly been there before.

Lee's father, Bob, was a quarterback in the NFL for 12 seasons and at one time, served as the athletic director at the University of the Pacific. So he knows a thing or two about the kind of scrutiny his son faces as the top signal caller at Nebraska.

Here's what Bob Lee's said all along: “You're not a true quarterback until you're run out of at least one place.”

Zac Lee's heard that phrase since he first started playing the position.

“Taking that to heart and really hearing that for as long as I've heard that, it's just part of the deal,” Lee said. “Like I've said before, everything that happens here is just part of the deal. You've got to be prepared for it.”

Still, Lee admits that the final weeks of October weren't easy for him to deal with.

He and the Huskers never figured things out against Texas Tech. He was leading the offense as it committed eight turnovers in a surprising home loss to Iowa State. He got benched in favor of true freshman Cody Green the next time out at Baylor.

But once Lee was reinserted into the lineup during the second quarter against Oklahoma, he seemed to regain his confidence. Coach Bo Pelini said he saw something different out of Lee as he helped guide NU to a 31-17 win at Kansas last week.

“I thought I saw a little swagger out of Zac,” Pelini said.

Maybe, Lee said. According to Lee, he's just trying to have fun again.

“I don't want to necessarily call myself arrogant, but there's a certain amount of confidence you've got to have when you're a quarterback of a team,” Lee said. “And a certain amount of that comes with just having fun and playing and just being an athlete. I've kind of got that back. Maybe there was a time period where I was over-analyzing things. But whatever it is, hopefully, it's back.”

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